Thought you learned the first time around
by Dimitri A
Summary: It starts when Jono thinks he sees a comet. It gets worse when it turns out to be a Yeerk ship and his family is killed. It gets insane when he's forced to fight. (TOMC, MA, JC, RMe SLASH, HET)
1. Default Chapter

Thought you learned the first time around

Warnings: I don't really know yet. Cursing and SLASH, because those are always in my fics. Hum…yeah,  
that's about it. Oh, and two OC, one whose important, the other not so much.

Pairings: Jake/Cassie, Marco/Ax, Tobias/OMC, and Rachel/Melissa. Eventually.

Summery: It starts when Jono thinks he sees a comet. It gets worse when it turns out to be a Yeerk ship and his family is killed. It gets insane when he's forced to fight.

Notes: A plot bunny I adopted. Not something I usually do but…what the hell?

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Chapter One  
Well…life sucks anyway

Jonathan

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It started like this, on a Friday, not to long ago:

"Jono!" My mom shouted. I was content to ignore her and turn up Nirvana a little to make it obvious. It  
didn't work. "Jonathan! Star!"

I sat up right, horrified that she dare to use my first name in the presence of actual living people. Star, as opposed to Jonathan. It's a terrible name and no self-respecting boy should be forced to bare it. But, alas, I'm my mother's mistake and I think this was her way of punishing me.

But I digress. Anyway, she was yelling for me…

Oh yeah, me. I'm Star, better known as Jonathan or Jono. How do you get Jonathan from Star? I have no  
idea. It just…happens that way sometimes you know?

You don't? Oh…never mind then.

Right. So about me. Nothing much to it. I'm in high school, can't wait till I get out, and I love the sky. I  
love the stars and the constellations and the planets and even the wide-open space there, I love the way the  
sun sets and turns the clouds orange and pink against the purple of the sky.

I suppose I might just be easily amused though. Heh. So…I know you're thinking, what the fuck is he going  
on about, where's the action, the drama, the angst, the hot chicks in bikinis! And now you want to leave,  
right?

I…well…you know I'm not too good at this. I've never had to tell my own story before so just listen,  
please, and then…then you can make a judgment. I'm not going to be really good at this and I know you  
won't believe a word from that weird kid who sits alone at lunch, but…I don't know. I just need to say my  
peace, you know? Let my side of it be known.

Uh, there is one thing you should know though. I didn't want this.

I didn't set out to change anything or make a difference; I'm too realistic a person for that. I believed I  
would live and do small meaningless things like most people and then die. And that would be it. No need to dig deeper or try harder, but that comes from being kind of depressed. I've been that way all my life. It's  
gotten worse and I know things will just keep getting worse before they truly get any better.

But I didn't want to do a whole lot with my life. No reason for me to be anything but what I was, or at least that's what I thought at the time. Why fight what was destined to happen right?

Right.

But back to the woman's screaming. I finally got tired and got up, turning down the radio as I went, leaving Nirvana playing just loud enough for my younger sister to hear. Normally I wouldn't have, but she had all her little groupies over and were doing one of those 'Ohmygod! Justin is so much hotter then Nick'  
sessions and I think a little rock would have done them good.

"Star Child, turn that sick song down!" Marisa shouted sticking her head out of her room. "That is so nasty. How can you even listen to that stuff?"

For the record, Rape Me is a great song. Yep, a personal favorite of mine.

"I turn it one and sit there. The sound waves filter into my ears and my brain files them and sends them to  
the pleasure center. Hence good music." I bowed some then walked off. Psychology was truly a brilliant  
class. But I digress.

My mother was sitting down stairs with her head turned away from me and the lights were down low,  
which meant one thing to me. Stepfather was out with another one of his whores again and my mother had cried so much her eyes were red and puffy and the light hurt them. My mother was beautiful, at least to me, with long black hair and almond shaped blue eyes and she used to have one of those smiles that just…warmed you from the inside out.

I did love my mother but I was too caught up in my teenage angst bullshit to really pay any attention to her or her situation.

I suppose if I had known how things would turn up I would have cared a little bit more or just…done more to help or…I don't know. But hey, hindsight is twenty-twenty right? So at the time I didn't care and the most I could drag up was anger at her for staying with the prick. My father may have been insane and an ass, but he'd never tried to hurt my mother and for that I shall be eternally in his debt.

What, in debt because he was kind enough to provide sperm for my conception? You're kidding right?  
Does the term 'violently suicidal' mean anything to you? No…oh, well, doesn't matter much, that doesn't  
come until later.

So yeah, my mom. She turned and smiled at me crookedly. "Star…Jonathan, I heard there was a meteor  
shower tonight and I thought you might like to watch up in the loft."

I smiled some. Sometimes I wanted to kill that woman but other times I wanted to hug her. I'm contrary  
like that I suppose. "Yeah, ma, I think I will. Thanks for telling me."

"Oh course baby." She said softly then turned back to the TV. Which wasn't on. But whatever. She was having one of her moments, which she preferred Marisa and me didn't know about them. I could respect that I suppose.

I headed outside to the small house type thing in the back. We called in the loft, but it wasn't really. It  
was…the closet thing I can think of is tree house. It's a building, one room, elevated about five feet off the  
ground by wooden beams. Mom and me had cut out a piece of the ceiling for my telescope years before,  
then covered it with a glass pane that I could push up when I wanted to.

I used to love it out there. Felt so…free and away from it all.

I climbed the ladder inside then turned on my equipment. What equipment you ask? Well, a high-powered  
telescope/digital camera thing, a computer, another, more low-tech telescope, printer, scanner and some  
other stuff.

Gifts from my father, to let me know he knows I still exist. Marisa's luck the Prick is her father, so she gets to have him around instead of getting pity gifts.

Not that I don't like them or that I've ever wanted my dad around, because I haven't. That man didn't want  
me, why the hell should I want him, right?

So yes, I got all my pity gifts going and sat down in front of the more low-tech telescope. I didn't use the other one much, I was afraid of breaking it

I got it aimed towards the east and waited. I didn't have to wait to long, turned out my mom has wonderful  
timing, because the show started. I was so excited and looking back it seems dumb, but up in my loft just watching the stars…I've never been happier than that. I doubt I'll ever be so happy. Simple things don't really amuse me anymore. Space…seems so sick and twisted. I can't take pleasure in it like I once did. I know too much now.

It was pretty uneventful, other then the unimaginable high I got from being able to see all of this without  
interruption. Most people would find it uneventful, but I was in heaven.

Then something happened. My telescope, the fancy one, kicked into gear suddenly and I nearly fell out of  
chair. It made a lot of noise as it focused itself and the camera made a connection to the computer. The computer started flickering, like when there's a storm and the power might go out.

So I'll admit, I was weirded out.

Whatever. Like you wouldn't be.

The camera started snapping pictures of totally empty sky. Now, being the guy I am, I figured I might as well take advantage of this.

My mom was really into that Animism and so she believed in signs and the like. I figured my stuff came on for a reason right? So I got the coordinated from my less-expensive telescope and quickly focus the other one. I didn't look through it, I was half afraid it'd fry my sorry ass, and pushed my chair over to the computer. I opened the program to take a look at the photos.

It wasn't as much fun as watching it for myself. I feel asleep within five minutes.

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I woke up the next morning to the sound of my sister screaming I was going to be late for school again.

I managed to haul myself off of the floor and wiped at my eyes, wondering where the hell my glasses had gotten off to. I had like three other pair, so I'd live if I couldn't find them, but I did like those. They were tinted crimson.

About this time I noticed that there was a fiery blob on my computer. I scrambled around for my elusive glasses and was a little surprised to see what looked like a piece of something on fire.

Here's my downfall. I'm a curious little fucker, so I moved it to a different program and blew it up to see it better. While it cleared itself up I checked the time.

Marisa lies, I had thirty minutes before my bus came.

It beeped announcing it was done. I took a look. Nearly wet myself.

Now, I may have been mildly superstitious, I'll admit it. But I didn't believe in aliens or intelligent life (not even on Earth) or…any of that shit. Don't know why, I believed in vampires and werewolves, but not aliens. I told you, I'm contrary. Can't help it.

So anyway, I had this photo of a ship-ish thing, apparently re-entering the atmosphere, thus flames were  
leaping off the sides. So, after I had thoroughly convinced myself it was just some experimental Air Force shit, I turned to leave. Then thought better of it and printed that thing out.

Turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life and…well you remember what I said about hindsight right? Twenty-twenty, but there's no point in laminating on what I could have done or should have done. Its over with now.

And I'm sorry to disappoint but there will no girls in skimpy outfits and car chases are far and few between. There is plenty of angst and some pretty screwed up romances, and few times when death is a nice thought for me.

My name was Star, usually called Jonathan, sometimes called Jono. I lost my entire life over a picture I just had to print out and take to my teacher. Got my entire family killed.

And that's just the beginning.

There's this group of kids, I can't tell who they are or where they live, because the Yeerks want nothing more then to put slugs in our heads and use us to take over the Earth. Which would suck pretty badly, so no. And we fight them with the ability to Morph, or change our body into the form of an animal.

So feel free to think I'm crazy, I would too, if I didn't wake up in the woods every night, screaming for the reprieve that isn't coming.


	2. Marco and Jono: Hiding

I Thought You Learned...

Notes: '_blah blah'_ (Thought speak)

_blah blah_ (Private thoughts)

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Chapter Two

Hiding

Marco and Jono

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Jono

God.

Not that I believe in the guy particularly, but it's that thing you say when you just don't know what to do next. And I don't know what to do next. I mean there was a week before anything really happened, other then when I gave the photo to my Astronomy professor, Mr. Hayes.

Hayes…I never would have expected him for the evil take over the world type, not that he was or is that type, but its hard to think of the guy who ratted me out to the slugs as anything less. He wasn't even a controller at the time. Hayes was what I like to call, a Mulder. He's adorably clueless, yet believes without a doubt that the Truth Is Out There and tries without luck to prove it. It was cute.

And the fact he was twenty-three with a nice butt helped.

Making faces already? If that has you disgusted you might want to leave now, I'm annoying blunt and open like that. Not really by choice, but ever since I got caught making out with my best friend, male, behind the school in seventh grade there hasn't been a whole lot of sense in pretending to be what I'm not.

So I gave him the photo and he was really happy. I got extra credit. He took the next four days off and life went on. I got shoved into a few lockers, stepfather came home drunk every night, and I hid out in the loft and argued with Marisa over stupid things.

It was the usual stuff. It was all so pathetically normal that I almost want to cry when I think about it because it just…I want it all back so badly. I'd kill for my worst problem to be if my step-father was going to be boozed up and angry or sober and apologetic or how I was going to manage to get my sister across town for ballet practice.

That whole saying about not knowing what you have until it's gone? Totally and completely true. If you think your life sucks it probably doesn't and you should be grateful for it.

Enough preachiness.

I thought I'd done my civic duty by uncovering an alien plot or some government plotting, I thought it was the latter. I never could have imagined I told the Bad Guys of the universe 'Hey, look, I'm an idiot, come and kill me!' Can you picture me dressed in all yellow, waving my arms around and screaming at the top of lungs? Because that's basically what I did.

And it all became apparent when I left the University, all prepared to go about my business and take my ass home, when some kid starts following me. I wouldn't have noticed, but I suffer from mild paranoia. No, I don't mean I think the government is out to get me, though they are, I mean I hear voices in my head plotting my demise, but every time I look they're gone.

And logically I know I'm crazy so I'm good for ignoring it. Besides, it only creeps up every now and then, hence the term mild.

So you know, I notice when someone is following me. So naturally I ran like the hounds of hell were snapping at me heels. Sharpest knife in the drawer I am not. I ran into the park and ended up face to face with a rifle.

So after shrieking like a little girl and just missing being shot I ran back the way I came, willing to take my chance with whoever was following me as opposed to the people wanting to shoot me. I'm sure you can see the logic in this.

I'm not ashamed of the way I reacted, it was a very stressful situation. The fact I didn't wet myself is a huge testament to my courage, I think.

_

* * *

Marco_

I blame it on Erik. I blame a lot of stuff on Erik so this isn't new or anything, but I blame it on him all the same. He gave us information on a boy who'd actually photographed a bug fighter re-entering the atmosphere.

It seemed the Yeerks wanted to eliminate the kid to ensure no one else ever saw said photo and it was up to the friendly neighborhood Animorphs to take care of this. Because we have nothing better to do then go to some small town in Upstate New York and rescue some kid.

…Okay, so I didn't have anything better to do, but how did any of them know that? I could have had plans or…something. Then again, if it got me away from that crazed poodle what the hell? My dad and his new wife were still doing the honeymoon thing, so I got to baby-sit the official poster dog for the dangers of crack. But, once again, I hated leaving the Chee to impersonate me. They always, always, cleaned my room and made it damn impossible to find anything.

I hate having a clean room. I have everything exactly where it's supposed to be, and then I come back and my storage area, also known as the floor, is totally bare. It's just…so wrong to mess with a man's emotions like that.

But, on the upside, there was for once no complicated plan to reach our destination. We were taking the bus. Even Ax and the bird boy. They were to de-morph at every rest stop but other than that it was all together a very good plan. And it went smoothly for a chance.

It was actually pretty boring now that I think about it. I didn't even have a reason to be my annoyingly sarcastic self it went so well. That was no fun for me, but I think Rachel was silently rejoicing my lack of material.

So we crossed the border and then had to fly to this guy's town. I…honestly can't remember the name. Not that I would tell you anyway, you never know who you can trust these days after all, but I really can't remember where the hell he lived. It's been a while.

He being Star Child. Star Child…this kid probably had a lot of parental issues.

We had a little information on him. He was about a year older then I was, but had classes at a University. Main interest was Astronomy and Astrology (which explained why he was taking pictures of the sky) younger sister, Japanese-Native American mix, that sort of stuff.

When we got to his town it was about noon. We split up, despite me saying it was a bad idea, and went in search of the boy's school.

Once again, this part was fairly simple. This was shaping up to be a pretty boring mission. I mean, were the Yeerks even after this guy?

We floated around in bird morph until one-thirty when school let out. And, by the way, who gets out at one-thirty? I have to sit in class until three! Is he special or something? Why couldn't I get out at one? I wanted to file a complaint with the school board.

At which point Tobias told me to shut up. Ax stayed silent, but I could feel the contempt.

'Just because you don't care about school anymore-'

'Marco, would you just look out for this guy?'

'I am! I'm just saying-'

'I believe there is a man holding a gun on top of that building.' Ax said in that strangely calm way of his, as if that weren't a big deal. _'Perhaps he is after the man we are searching for.'_

Ax said in that strangely calm way of his, as if that weren't a big deal. 

'Maybe.' Tobias said as he made a sharp turn and headed towards a building. _'I think…he's after that kid in all black down there. Walking towards the bridge. Marco go after him in human form.'_

Tobias said as he made a sharp turn and headed towards a building. 

Who died and made the bird the boss? Does the fact he's dating Rachel give him special authority? I went down anyway.

'What are you and Ax gonna do?'

Tobias laughed and I have to confess it was even more than Rachel on a bad day. He's been very easily amused by violence lately. I was pretty sure that living out in the woods with only our resident space-boy for company is starting to take its toll on his brain.

'Make sure this guy doesn't get a shot off.'

'…there are times when you scare me.'

I was on the ground at this point, in an alley between a diner and a Chinese place. I started to change back, trying not to look at the horrific change I was going through. Because eww, seeing my arm grow, but having it devoid of bone and skin, so it hangs there and I can see all the red tissue stuff inside? It's just not cool.

'Heh. You love it.'

I didn't say anything. Not because I was harboring some kind of lusty type feelings for the bird, I'm wasn't and am not and anyone who says differently is getting knocked out by a very angry gorilla, or I thought that his special brand of insanity was cool, because I didn't. (Though I've come to realize he's crazy cool in a Dick Grayson kind of way, which is ironic when you really think about it.)

I just didn't say anything because my beak had shriveled into a mouth and I was too human to use thought speak.

But had I been able to say something I would have had a super witty and scathing comment for him. It would have been great and he would have had no course of action but to bow down before my dominant riff skills.

Err…I'll explain all of that another time. Lets just say I will never watch Mystery Science Theater with the bird ever again.

Well, okay, maybe next Saturday, but after that never again.

Back to the guy. He was walking along, perfectly oblivious, and I fell into step a little behind him, hoping no one would notice the strange boy in spandex. I still think we need to come up with some X-men type outfits. They were spandex, but they look in good in it. Why must we look like idiots? Or even better, the X-men leather. I would look good in leather.

Much to my surprise the kid looked back, right at me, squinted in confusion, then started walking faster. So I started going faster as well, it seemed like the best thing I do. Oh, and just a Public Service Announcement, don't litter. It makes it hard for the barefoot superhero to follow the boy in danger quickly. Stepping on broken glass makes it hard to focus on the task at hand.

We ended up going across a four-lane street, with me nearly getting run over, and across some bridge into a park.

I lost him, but I doubted he was going to get shoot out here.

Just to prove me wrong a series of gunshots rang out. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

I found myself morphing wolf. It was fast and would be able to pick up some kind of scent, hopefully.

Before I could finish the boy I'd been following ran back my way, looking frantic. A hawk, Tobias I'm forced to assume, screamed and came at him from the side and forced him into the small patch of bushes I was morphing in. He blinked, turned and looked at me and almost scrambled out again.

'Keep him in there!' Tobias shouted, moving higher.

'There are four men with guns and two with Dracon beams.' Ax announced. I couldn't see him, but it was kind of comforting to know he was watching out for me. Us. I didn't mean me…shut up.

I grabbed the kid with my paw/hand thing and held him still while steadily going back to my normal body. He was watching me with wide black eyes. Then he fainted. Seriously, he just clunked out into my arms. I'm still not too sure what to think of that.

It seemed a little wussy. Then again, I suppose if I was in his shoes I might have puked then wet myself while screaming like a little girl. He was still normal, didn't know about aliens and wasn't fighting some fucked up life or death war.

There was something appealing about that. He was innocent…almost.

I don't know a lot of what happened after that, only bits and pieces of conversation that I caught. Cliff Notes version, Jake, Rachel and Cassie showed up, hearing Ax call them in thought speak, they kicked a little Yeerk tail and all was well.

Except for the unconscious guy in my lap, but I've learned to not focus on the little details.

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Moonjava: Well, I'm certainly glad you decided to give the Fandom a shot and read this. I was worried, the only other story I've adopted I was actually a co-author on to begin with. This one I was given five chapters already written and…it was weird.

Mechante: Jono is different for two reasons: First, He's pretty much blatantly insane. While some OCs, like Damien and Jacob, will admit to being a little weird they stop short of total craziness. Second, he was based dimly on Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, which doesn't bode well… Anyway, my first first-person fic so I hope it goes well and just…think of it was an original sci-fi story, if that helps any.

Genesis: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I'm editing the original chapters and giving them my own 'flare' but I have some stuff pre-written so it shouldn't be too long of a wait.


	3. Tobias and Jono: Crazy is a relative thi...

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Chapter Three  
Tobias and Jono  
Crazy is a relative thing  
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_Jono_

I woke up in the woods surrounded by animals. So I did what any mildly sane and extremely stressed out teenager would do, in my opinion anyway, I started screaming at the top of my lungs. I just wasn't having a good day.

There was a hawk on a low branch that seemed to almost wince before flying up a branch or two. There were two owls also in the trees, a tiger-which may have been the reason I was really screaming-, a wolf, and a kid.

Yes, a kid. Which seemed odd even at the time, but when I think back this should have alerted me to the fact I wasn't really in danger of being eaten.

"Stop that." The boy said, blinking wide eyes. He looked surprised I had screamed. Well, I'm sorry if my fear alarmed him.

Only, you know, not.

I stopped screaming though, because the tiger gave me a dirty look. I settled for backing away slowly and…well generally being very afraid.

The wolf growled so I stopped moving. I felt dizzy. And sick, we can't forget sick, because I proceeded to throw up. Nope, not having a good day at all. In fact I was having a very piss poor day and would have liked to wake up back in my bed with some sort of assurance that I was just having some kind of weird acid trip.

Not that I've ever been on an acid trip.

That I'm admitting to.

The boy frowned. "Are you alright? Ight."

"No, thank you for asking." At which point something occurred to me. "I'm having another dream. I hit my head or got a hold of some bad school food, I'm unconscious somewhere and this is all just a really bad dream. Which is strange, because there's usually more blood and pointy objects in my dreams, but that's okay."

"I can assure you this no dream. Ure…" He trailed off and glanced over his shoulder.

"Well then I really do need Prozac." I said shaking my head. "And you know, I don't want to be crazy right now. Maybe another time, but not right now. I can't be crazy; it's too much work. So please, just leave me alone and allow me to convince myself I haven't lost my mind, if that's alright with you."

I wanted to curl up into a ball and not be there. I didn't want to be there and if I could close my eyes then I'd be anywhere but there. Mind over matter and what have you. I would force myself to be elsewhere. I would…will my body away from there.

I cracked my eyes open then whimpered. I was still there. Why was I still there? What happened to mind over matter, the power of positive thinking and all of that shit? I'd been thinking…relatively positive…I think. I don't really know; I don't do it very often.

I'm a pessimist through and through. Maybe that was why I was still here.

Or maybe there was no way I was going to mentally move myself. Duh, I knew that already. I'm a little iffy, not stupid. I knew, in a logically way, that I couldn't move myself, but it'd seem like a good idea for that moment.

Nope, bad idea.

I wonder what's wrong with me. My thoughts are…odd. I wasn't at my most coherent, obviously, and I couldn't quite figure out why that was. I mean, disturbed much? Maybe I was in shock.

* * *

_Tobias_

_'Why do we always save the crazy ones?' _Rachel demanded.

_'I don't think he's crazy _I said, watching the boy panic. '_This isn't an everyday thing for most people. How would you take it if you were him'?_

_'I wouldn't scream like a girl'._ Rachel muttered.

I didn't say anything after that, but wished she could see my mental eye roll. Don't get the idea I don't like Rachel anymore, I love Rachel, but sometimes…she can be a little too much for one person sometimes. Like this, putting the poor guy down. I think his reaction was pretty reasonable.

Well, maybe not the part about going crazy, but the basics of it. Screaming I totally understood.

Sometimes I just wanted to scream. I didn't, but I sure as hell wanted to do so.

I felt bad for him. I wanted to say something to help him out, but no one but Ax was supposed to speak to him. We didn't want another David accident, so we going to see if there was another way around it. Like having the Chee relocate him and his family. Anyway we could avoid telling the whole story would be acceptable.

"While I can't comment on your mental state. Te. I am not a product, ro uct, of your mind. Everything you see is real."

"Exactly what a figment of my imagination would say. Only with less stuttering and more mocking. And knives, lots of knives." Black eyes glazed over for a moment and he frowned. "I think I'm in shock. I've read about it and I think that's it."

_'That would explain his behavior'. _Cassie agreed.

_'Or he could just be a whack job.' _Rachel said. She is suspicious of everyone and had been ever since the David thing. I didn't blame her for it.

_'It'd take one to know one wouldn't it?' _Marco asked voice perfectly neutral.

_'Shut up.' _Rachel snapped.

_'Would you all be quiet?' _Jake demanded. '_I'm trying to think.' _As he said this the tiger got up and began pacing and the boy we'd 'abducted' squeaked and shrank back.

I felt really bad for him.

_'Calm down.' _Jake was going to have my feathery butt when he found out I was talking to this kid, but I felt so bad for him. No one deserved to have their lives turned upside down like this, least of all someone who had just been taking pictures. '_We aren't going to hurt you.'_

This strange look on his face that I interpreted as 'I've officially cracked, time to call the nice men in white to come and get me.' And I nearly laughed at it. The others were bickering about how to handle this discreetly while Ax was silent and listened. I tuned them out and tried to focus on at least calming him down somewhat.

_'I'm the bird. Hawk, not owl. Don't look at me; I'm not supposed to be talking to you.'_

Lips formed the words 'a rebel', but he didn't look at me. Gotta respect a kid who can follow directions.

_'Something like that. The simple version of what's going on is that you took a picture of an alien spacecraft and the Yeerks, evil parasitic slug things from space, want to kill you before you can show it to anyone. That's what the guys in the park were up to. We, the six of us, want to protect you. Maybe get you and your family somewhere where no one will be able to find you or something. That's pretty much it.'_

He sat there then stood up, regarding all of us warily. "It was nice meeting you and I appreciate the whole urge to protect me, but I'm not really up to being saved." His tone was clipped and precise, as if he were giving a lecture. "So tell your space slugs to bother me another time."

The guy had balls. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, but he had them nonetheless.

Jake sighed, clearly exasperated, then stood directly in front of the kid we were attempting to save, but seemed to be doing a poor job of. I mean, sure he wasn't dead or anything, but we aren't exactly helping the guy any. He thought he was losing his mind.

_'You can't leave.' _Jake said finally. '_Unless you have a death wish-'_

"Sometimes." He tilted his head off to the side, grinning faintly. "Depends on how the day goes. And, to be honest, I'm not exactly loving life at the moment; so walking to my death isn't wholly unappealing. So you can either give me some kind of explanation or you can let me go."

Hum. This was an interesting tactic. Jake was going to talk now, to keep the kid from running off and being killed. Not that he was important to anything, but because letting him die meant the Yeerks had some kind of victory. And the picture of the bug fighter would be helpful.

_'You took a picture-'_

"Yes, and now slug things wanna flay me alive and what have you. Got it. I haven't got it anymore anyway, I gave it to my Astronomy professor." One eyebrow went up. "Not that aliens would care. Probably want to shoot me and make sure I don't tell anyone right? Cover the bases."

_'Probably.' _Jake said, pacing again. The kid lowered himself into a crouch. '_We'd prefer if they didn't kill you.'_

"Welcome to the Minority. Just about everyone thinks I'm going to kill myself eventually anyway so why bother saving me? Totally pointless endeavor."

…are you trying to talk us out of protecting you? Jake's tone gave away how completely bewildered he was. I can fully understand why. We aren't used to coming up to things not afraid to die, but this guy was accepting death with a shrug.

The Yeerks will deal their way out of death many times over, valuing their own skin above all else. Humans buckled at the thought of being killed. I wasn't too sure about Andalites, the only one I'd seen die was Elfangor and he'd been pretty calm about it. But I assumed that if all Andalites were that way then there'd be a lot less of them.

A slow grin. "I just might." He blinked then a strange look settled on his face. "I have to go. My sister's home alone. I…shit."

He totally disregarded Jake and plunged into the shadows of the forest. There was a beat then the girls took off in owl morph and Marco started creeping through the forest. Jake started to melt into his own body while Ax resumed his own.

"Okay, that could have gone better." Jake said, more to himself then Ax or me.

I wasn't sure what to do. It was going to be dark within a few minutes and my eyes would be all but useless. I didn't want to go human, because humans are useless unless you need thumbs, but if we were following this guy home…

"Owl morph I think." Jake said, taking a deep breath then concentrating. His skin went white and he started to shrink, while his eyes got wide and round. I stopped watching and thought owl.

* * *

_Jono_

I wasn't sure if the animal saviors were following me or not, I just had the feeling I had to get home. It was like someone had reached into my chest and gripped my heart with an icy hand then twisted as hard as possible. It made me lose my breath, not to mention making me a little dizzy.

It took a little work to get out of the park and back onto the bridge path. I didn't live more then ten minutes from the University, lucky me. Running it was probably no more the four or five minutes, but it felt like moving through mud. Like I was getting nowhere fast.

You remember that part of Ghostbusters, the second one, where Lady Liberty is walking through the streets of New York? It was like that, only…on a small scale. Nonetheless I felt like some kind of huge statue trying to get through the streets quickly but failing.

My mind was buzzing with things I really just didn't want to think about. Aliens, talking animals, me catching a space ship on camera…too much. I wanted to shut down, fall over and pretend it hadn't happened.

Once I got home I'd do just that. Home. I had to get home.

I turned onto the street and felt myself slowing down before everything even registered in my mind. A bunch of people crowded around my house, swirling blue and red lights, yellow tape. An ambulance.

I walked the rest of the way, sense of urgency fading into numbness. I could see stretchers, but with white sheets over them.

I was in the crowd and pushing my curious neighbors out of the way as I tried to forced my way to the front and get into my house. How dare they be here, I remember raging internally, this wasn't their concern. They didn't live there and they sure as fuck didn't care about what we did until now. It could sure as hell have stayed that way.

Morbid bastards. It's like a car crash I guess, it could be horrible with mangled bodies in the like, yet you still slow as you go past just to check. Darkly curious things we are.

I don't think I wanted part of my life to be just another car crash.

"Oh, Star." A hand clamped onto my shoulder. Hayes? What the hell was my teacher doing here? Can you see the little alarms going off in my head? "I'm so sorry."

"About?" I asked as I tried to shake off his hand. I didn't want to be touched right now and the alarm bells in my head had become very angry sirens.

"Your mother and sister of course. I know you didn't care much for your stepfather, but him as well."

I wanted to ask why he was sorry and then everything went slow around me. I could three bodies being piled into two ambulances, felt the wind blow one sheet to the side, causing one of the EMTs to curse and try to tug it back into place. I saw the beautiful face of my mother exposed, her pale throat and the hole that was there.

I wanted to cry and scream and hit and kill and die all at once. Yet I can only stare at this hole, this gaping black/red thing in my mother's neck, throat, in total awe. It didn't belong there; my mother didn't usually have holes in odd places. Now wasn't the time to start a new trend. I found it most disturbing and the image carved itself onto the back of my eyelids and I still can't close my eyes without seeing her.

It would take sometime to register that my mother was dead and had a bullet wound through her neck, meaning she died from choking on her own blood. Probably slowly. Not to be morbid or anything, but…they'd let her die slowly, made her suffer.

Makes me a little mad, you know.

But at the time it wasn't hitting me. So I let myself be led away by Hayes, not even feeling myself move. Didn't even realize I was at my teacher's apartment for sometime after that. He set me on the couch and went about making a cup of tea.

I took it without a though and let the warmth seep into me. It was nice in a way.

He looked at me then sighed. "I'm sorry about this Jono."

Jono? He usually called me Star, found it ironic. Jono was a new one.

"Okay." I took a sip of tea and had to repress a chuckle. I could taste alcohol and medicine. Something to make me sleep perhaps. Well, if he wanted to spike my drink more power to him. Maybe I'd get lucky. I took another sip as I contemplated the at times fathomless depths of my perversion.

Decided I didn't particularly care at the moment.

"I mean it. When I told them about you I thought they'd want to meet you, not any of this." He sighed again. "You have to understand chances like this…aren't often. I had to take it, had to meet them. They want me to join them Jono. It'll be perfect. I just…"

"What?" Another drink. It felt good as it burned on the way down. I was feeling groggy already. It was really nice. Shit kicked in quick. Another drink.

"The Yeerks. They'll let me be apart of them. Can you understand that?"

I squinted at him as my brain fought to process this from the fog that was descending on my mind. Then a very clear voice, which sounded like Marisa, said its peace. 'He fucking ratted you out to aliens that killed your family! And he's drugged you! What a sick fucker! And to think, you had a crush on him.'

The last part sounded almost smug and I could see her tossing her hair back and arching an eyebrow at me, black eyes harsh and accusing.

I blinked then let out a tiny snort. No shit? The bird and the tiger spoke the truth it seemed

The tea slipped from my suddenly boneless fingers and splattered on the floor, burning a little. It hardly mattered as I slumped over on the pillow soft couch and let myself drift off.

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Dragon: I'm glad you liked it. The story is moving right along I think, rather well. No worries about spelling errors, since I have them in my actual story.

Mechante: LOL. You just knew it have to be Tobias, eh? I'm not going to ask why and, instead, will just assume I'm getting predictable…anywho, reading works, yeah, if you wanna go that route… And Jono is pretty nuts, not to mention a borderline sadist. Maybe because he was slightly based off of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

And, as always, thanks to Moon and Hanyou.


	4. Jake, Ax, and Marco: Pinky and the Brain

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Chapter Four

Marco, Ax, and Jake

Pinky and the Brain

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Jake

We fucked up. Again, except it was somehow bigger this time.

We'd been so preoccupied with the kid we hadn't spared his family a thought. We should have thought of them though, we should have had a little insight. I hate to think back to David, I never want to think of him again, the mistakes I made.

First was his family. He lost his family to the Yeerks. I think he was crazy from the beginning, or at least a nasty little prick, but letting his family get captured probably didn't help him out any.

Not only had this kid lost his family he had no chance of ever getting them back. We'd all seen the scene, his family being taken away in an ambulance, already dead.

We **fucked **up.

And it got worse, because we didn't know where he was. Cassie and Rachel said he'd gone off with someone, a man, but they didn't know to where. They'd decided to stick around and scope out the place for alien-type things.

Marco had remained in wolf morph and hadn't been able to get too close to the house let alone chase after the kid.

Did I mention that we fucked up? Yeah? Good.

We messed up in a multi-dimensional way actually. He'd lost his family, so now had the orphan thing going on. No one to watch over him, plus everyone was going to be looking for him, making it harder for us to do so unnoticed. He was alone. I had the feeling we were going to end up adding him to our ranks, which was the last thing I wanted to do.

But what else could we do with him?

"If he's so eager to die why are we bothering?" Rachel asked, playing with her hair thoughtfully. I had to admit she had a point. Why save someone who didn't want saving?

"Because whatever his issues are we can't let him be killed or infested." Cassie said sternly. "What kind of people would we be if we did?"

"Smart." Marco said, glancing up at them. "Let's not get involved. The Yeerks are going to 'dispose' of him, not infest him, so this won't come back to bite us in the ass. We won't get involved with him and he won't get involved with us.

"_'We're already involved.'_ Tobias said. He was in the trees above us, speaking as he preened his feathers. He tended to do that a little more then necessary when he was thinking or nervous. _'I don't think I could live with myself if I knew we'd turned some kid over to the Yeerks because we didn't feel like doing anything. Isn't it bad enough we let his family, a bunch of innocent people, get killed because we weren't thinking?'_

Tobias had a good point. So did Rachel and Marco though. Cassie too. Have I mentioned how much I hate being the leader of this band of idiots? Nothing ever gets accomplished this way. We always seem to be stuck in some kind of moral tie.

I turned to Ax, hoping for a change he'd have an opinion of his own. "Ax? Any ideas or contributions to this?"

_'I will of course do whatever you think is best Prince Jake.'_ I sighed. This was obviously going to come down to me again._ 'However-'_

"Oh my god, hell has just frozen over and Ax has an actual opinion." Marco said tone indicating that this was a big thing. It kind of was though, thus far Ax just did whatever I told him and never expressed his view. Considering he knew more than I did about…oh, everything, I wish he'd say what he felt more often. Ax just stared at him with all four eyes and Marco swallowed. "You were saying Ax-man?"

* * *

_Ax_

_'__It would be wise to save this human. It is entirely possible he holds more information then we think and could be useful. At the very least he may have another copy of this picture that you could perhaps send to your state official or television station.'_ I said as I turned my gaze from the nervous looking Marco.

I understand that having all of my eyes trained on a person makes them very nervous. I might never really understand why, but it held true in this situation._'_

_You just wanna be on TV.'_ Tobias said privately

I was silent for a moment making it seem as if I had to think the accusation over. _'Perhaps. The idea is not wholly unappealing.'_

Tobias laughed. I'm glad, this meant my attempts at humor were indeed successful. Being on TV is of course not my reasoning behind my decision; I believe it would be a genuinely good idea. In spite of this human's unique attitude towards his death there would have been no point in letting him die if in fact he had useful information.

Prince Jake smiled at me. "Well, that's settled, we're saving this guy. As soon as we figure out where he might be." He frowned then.

'He mentioned that he had given the picture to his Astronomy teacher. If the Yeerks know about it, his teacher must have told someone about it. It would make sense to find out who this teacher is and then find out if he knows where the boy is.'

Prince Jake looked at me then beamed. "You are a genius Ax."

I felt a brief surge of pride, but said nothing. It was…pleasant to be praised in such a way. I try not to think of what my people might say if they could see me, as I'm supposed to be humble and not accept praise, least I get a…big head I think it's called. But, as humans say, what they don't know won't hurt them.

Sadly I become more and more human as each day progresses. My parents would have been most disturbed if I were to act this way around them, though at that time I had no idea if I would ever so much as speak to them again.

I didn't hold out much hope, but I couldn't tell that to my friends. They would fight anyway, so I thought it better to let them believe my people would come.

"Not to call Ax's genius into doubt, but how do we find out about the professor?" Cassie asked worriedly. "We don't even know their name."

Jake looked at me and I shrugged, a human trait I had picked up. I couldn't possibly be expected to think of everything could I?

"Well we can go to his school and poke around." Marco suggested. "Find a directory or something. It shouldn't be too hard to do."

"That was the first intelligent thing you've said in a long time." Rachel looked a little awed.

Marco frowned. "As opposed to you saying nothing intelligent at all, as in ever, unless it involves a plan that will get us all killed?"

Marco sounds genuinely offended by her words. I'm not sure why, he and Rachel seem to insult each other all of the time. It was almost like that was the only way they could communicate with each other. Sometimes I'm not sure they are able to tolerate each other, but Tobias insists that they do. Perhaps it's another human trait I don't yet understand.

It isn't really important. Marco's idea on the other hand, made sense to me, as well as Prince Jake, though he looked very pensive.

"Alright, then we have a plan, thanks to Marco and Ax's collective genius."

At which Marco blinked before groaning. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that. I was just…saying. You know…to help Ax out. Not to form an actual plan."_'It's a very good plan Marco.' _I said. I'm not sure why I did since we were obviously going to use the plan whether Marco approved or not, as we always did. He disapproved about everything we did and we still went through with them

Marco blinked at me then coughed and looked away. "Well of course it's a good plan, like any plan that both of us had a hand in could be anything less, I'm just saying…never mind."

"Good." Jake said rubbing his hands together.

_'Don't do that. You look like you're trying to take over the world or something.' _Tobias said, sounding amused. It reminded me of a cartoon Tobias and I watched sometimes.

It involved two mice, one a supposed genius and the other very…special is the human word for it, I think. The genius comes up with plans for world domination, none of which seem as if they'll work out to begin with, and then the other one unknowingly foils the other's plans.

It's actually amusing; in spite of the way it sounds.

"But Brain, didn't we do that last night?" Marco whined. Jake just blinked at him. Marco shook his head. "I don't know why I even bother."

_'Its okay Pinky, he knows you mean well.'_ Tobias said. It was more of a teasing manner then one to make Marco feel better, but it seemed to work anyway. He smiled.

"Finally, someone who does more then sit around and act like a thirty-year-old."

'Ax is more of a fan then me.'

"Really?" Marco raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you a closet cartoon watcher Ax?"

_'__I don't believe I'm a closet anything.' _Marco's eye twitched and Tobias snorted. The others rolled their eyes, which indicated to me that it was some display of 'immaturity' and wouldn't be worth asking about.

"Can we concentrate?" Jake demanded. "Please?"

* * *

Marco

Sometimes Jake isn't any fun. He just doesn't always get the concept of not sulking around and waiting to be killed when you can just make jokes about it. Life is what you make it after all, and I'd prefer for mine not to be on par with some of after school special.

Not that it would be…then again. Boy loses mother, life sucks. Boy rescues dad from Yeerks a time or two, turns out mother isn't really dead but the head of alien organization boy must stop. Boy's father remarries to his math teacher, even though mother isn't dead, boy lures mother off of a cliff, etc. Not necessarily all on that order.

Just…replace aliens with some major company and the cliff part with some fluffy family reunion bit and you have every other feel good movie.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Jake's boring sometimes. All work, no play.

But my idea…,okay Ax and my conjoined idea though the best part was all mine, turned out to be a major success. Relatively speaking anyway. We found the school directory pretty easily, managed to not attract too much attention in our spandex, and found that Mr. J. Hayes was the professor our vanished charge had given his photo to. A quick look in the phone book and we were headed for some apartment, blessedly close to the school.

I was really tired of walking around barefoot.

Ax, in harrier morph, and Tobias circled the building to see if they could look in any of the windows and see anything. We got nothing for a few minutes, unless an old lady staring at us, crossing the street, walking a few feet, then crossing back to our side, counted as something.

I felt a little…obvious standing out there, not to mention kind of chilly. I guess we were hoping that this branch of the Yeerk takeover wouldn't have anyone who would be able to identify Jake or Rachel as Tom's relatives or me and Cassie.

_'Found him.'_ Tobias said, sounding faintly amused. _'Him and some guy, the teacher I guess. And…oh shit.'_

Jake looked up, hoping to see Ax or Tobias or get a little more than 'Oh shit' out of them, but that was it. We couldn't shout up at them to give us a little more information, since that would have drawn more then a little attention to us. So we stood there for what felt like an eternity, waiting for someone to give us a heads up on whatever was going down.

_'Uh, sorry about that.'_ Tobias again but now he sounded a little haggard._ 'There was a bit of a situation. You can all come inside now.'_

I looked at Jake and shook my head. This wasn't going to go well, it never went well. Jake ignored me, of course. So we trooped inside and up the stairs, happy to not be seen by everyone once again. We went into the apartment where we found what may have been a surprising sight had our lives not already been stark raving insane long before that point.

There was a man tied to an armchair unconscious, Tobias and Ax perched on the back of the couch and the boy we were looking for sitting on the table and holding a really big knife. And he looked just mildly upset.

Not that I can blame him.

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Dragon: Chapters should be more forthcoming, as I have more time to myself.

Mechante: Johnny isn't to be trusted…what with being a homicidal maniac and all. It's a comic book and it's…well, it's interesting, to say the least. Jono isn't really the sort to need the cavalry so much as the sort to yell at the cavalry for stopping his revenge plan. Yes, the pairing could have been awkward if Tobias was just Bird-boy twenty-four seven… Even more awkward than Marco and Ax, which promises to be interesting..


	5. Tobias and Jono: Screwed

Thought you learned the first time around

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Chapter Five

Tobias and Jono

Screwed

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Tobias

I could have been wrong, but I was pretty sure this guy wasn't overly happy with the whole being rescued thing. Or maybe it was the fact I'd yelled in his head to keep him from hacking his teacher into little pieces.

One can never be really sure about those things.

He did let me and Ax in through the windows, pretty nice considering I'd just given him a massive headache. He walked over to the table and leaned against it as he glared alternately at Ax, his professor, and me. His eyes were black, almost like tar, and dark shadows loomed underneath. They seemed far too dark and wide to belong to someone so pale and thin. His hair was the same color, falling into his face and sticking out in odd directions, giving him a frantic disheveled look.

The knife didn't help matters any…

"I should just kill him. I mean, how is a bird going to stop me anyway?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than to us, but I answered anyway.

'By turning into a large and potentially dangerous animal.'

He rolled his eyes. "You expect me to believe…never mind. I just remembered I'm talking to a bird."

He smiled ruefully then sighed and eyed the knife contemplatively. He turned it and the light from the window glinted off of it. The door had already been slightly open already, why I couldn't really say, and was pushed open more as Jake and the others filed in.

Cassie was last and shut the door after her, before she glanced around. Like that other four her gaze settled on the knife totting teen. He regarded them all with a mixture of interest and cautiousness. Then he crossed his arms over his chest, almost defensively. I could almost feel the tension in the air and the distrust emanating from him. Not that he had a reason to trust us or anything.

'_Maybe you should put the knife down.'_

He snorted, eyes darting over to me almost nervously. "Not fucking likely. How am I supposed to protect myself from 'large and potentially dangerous animals'?"

If I could have winced at the way he threw my words back at me I would have. Thankfully hawks don't flinch, or give anything away, and I just stared at him. He stared back for a moment then sighed again, eyes moving back to the others.

"You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone."

I can't speak for everyone else but I for one was glad to know he had no plans to take a knife to any of us. I'm sure you can see how this was a comforting thought. I may have been the only one though, because the others just exchanged nervous looks. I think, in hindsight, they didn't get the same thing out of his statement that I did.

"Why is he tied to a chair?" Marco asked after a moment of tense silence.

"I didn't want to get his hopes up by tying him to the bed." Came the emotionless reply. The boy's lips quirked slightly, but I had the strange feeling he was perfectly serious. "And I figured just tying him up would fulfill my daily kink requirement."

__

'What is a daily-'

__

'Later Ax.' I said quickly. I don't mind explaining things to Ax, he's pretty much the only family I have after all, not to mention my best friend, but there were times when I would just have him watch the Playboy channel.

Which, oddly enough, we do get.

Not that I've ever watched it or anything.

Marco blinked slowly. "O-kay. I'm not going to ask anymore questions."

The boy nodded solemnly. "That's probably for the best. So…are you people? Or assorted animals? Or perhaps people that turn into assorted animals? Or maybe I'm stuck in some B sci-fi flick."

"C. Kind of." Jake looked a little nervous. Like he was still debating what we were going to do with this guy. I could tell he didn't want to add anyone else to our ranks. I certainly didn't blame him. But now that he had seen faces it was going to be hard to so anything else.

"I'm going to stay here in hopes you will elaborate that that oh so enlightening explanation."

I couldn't help but wonder if he was always that sarcastic or if it was just some kind of defense like Marco's sometimes painful attempts at humor.

Jake took a deep breath then launched into the whole story. I hadn't realized just how…thoroughly fucked up it really was. It's a little different hearing everything then it is actually living it. Ax was nice enough to contribute for technical things, not that I thought the kid understood any of what Ax had to say, and sometime later Jake was sitting on the couch looking incredibly weary.

Ax had taken on his own body, a demonstration had been needed to wipe that skeptical look of the kids face and that had pretty much done it, and the rest of us were silent.

He blinked a few times then tilted his head off to the side. "Well, not to point out flaws in your brilliant plan to save me, but has the thought occurred to you that maybe I have an intergalactic slug thing in my head? Or that Hayes has this place wired? Or a million other horrible and nasty things?"

__

'He has a point'

"Thank you Tobias, but I've noticed." Jake snapped.

"Hey, don't get pissy with the bird. I was just saying. Besides if you really want you can tie me up for three days. It could be enlightening." He smiled suggestively. Jake, Big Jake who has stared down aliens who could easily shred him into tiny pieces, blushed beet red. The kid laughed then pursed his lips. "So. Now that you've regaled me with your little story, what do you intend to do about my fugitive status?"

"Fugitive status?"

"You haven't seen the news. I am currently suspect number one in my family's murders. It's actually pretty funny. They've got all of my little sister's friends talking about the evil music I listen to and the many threats I've made on their lives. Somehow I never thought casual things like 'I hope you brats choke' would come back and haunt me like this." He didn't look the least bit amused as he spoke. "So. What're you gonna do about it?"

Jake groaned. It had, for us, just gotten harder. The Yeerks were not only looking for him, but the police as well. If the Yeerks got him we were screwed. If the cops got him he would eventually end up in the hands of the Yeerks and once again we were screwed. This was just going so well.

"I guess we'll take you back with us."

"…I have no intention of helping you fight this war thing." He looked a little…ashamed of what he was saying, but also convicted. "I get I'm a liability of sorts so if you just let me kill Hayes you are free to send me to fucking Timbuktu for all I care."

Cassie looked shocked. "We can't let you kill anybody."

"Why not? You people aren't exactly fighting a moral war here. Think of it as one less Controller for you to worry about."

"We don't just…kill people." Jake said looking a little nervous. "We don't like to kill anything unless we absolutely have to."

He sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes. "That's nice. But he, as a human with nothing controlling him, gave me away to a bunch of slugs and got my family killed, so that the Yeerks could bless him with a brain slug. I'm not exactly seeing a reason not to stab him repeatedly."

__

'Don't take it personally. We just…don't. The Yeerks kill, we don't.'

"I'm not one of you." He pouted some then tilted his head off to the side. He shifted almost nervously, hand with the knife going up. He scratched his head with the tip, as if completely unaware of what he was doing. "We're just wasting time here."

"You're right. Ax could you…" Jake made a gesture towards the boy. I was confused for a moment then I saw Ax's tail shot out. The kid crumpled, unconscious and thankfully not missing any major limbs. The knife clattered to the ground, thankfully not piercing any of our new 'friend's' more important organs or limbs.

I had the strange feeling he was going to be very upset when he woke up.

Jake made a small noise then frowned. "So…any ideas on how to carry him out of here?"

'_I think a more worthy subject would be what to do with this man.' _Ax's tail flicked in the teacher's general direction and everyone turned to look.

"Uhh…we leave him I guess. He's a willing controller so we can't save him and…well, we don't have time for this. We need to be gone before they wake up."

Rachel made a face. "So we're really taking this psycho with us?"

"Yes." Jake rubbed at the bridge of his nose. I could tell he was starting to get a headache, it showed in how tired his eyes were suddenly becoming and the faint strain of annoyance in his voice.

"Look at it this way Xena, you'll have a new buddy in the Crazy Club." Marco said cheerfully. Rachel sneered at him.

"Better that than the Whiner Club."

"I sense a real lack of focus here." Jake muttered, looking over at Cassie as if begging for her to intervene.

__

Jono

Can I just explain how sick and tired I was of ending up out cold? First I faint then I'm drugged and then I'm cracked in the back of the skull by some centaur looking alien thing. It's enough to start driving a guy slightly insane…or, more insane then he was before…or…actually that be after the first totally life altering event, but before the other totally life altering event, so would it be before the first after?

Ugh. Headache. Moving on.

I was really annoyed when I woke up sometime later, no to mention that I was psychically wiped, mentally too. I don't know why, I'd spent most of the past two days far from awake. Maybe being unconscious and being asleep aren't the same thing case. So I passed out again.

I kind of drifted in and out for a while. I think that longest I was awake was about ten minutes, because I remember foggy figures close by whispering. Or maybe it was some kind of weird dream, thought most of the time when I have dreams I can remember they involve rope, whips, and…well never mind. That's hardly important.

I woke up, really woke up eventually, and had the presence of mine to want to roll over and go back to sleep.

And probably would have not for the rope around my arms and chest.

I was tied to a chair. Normally I would have had a crack or two or twenty for my captors but I really wasn't in the mood for it. So instead I was just really annoyed.

"Hello?"

__

'Hey.' The bird, again. I was beginning to see him more then I saw my own family. That thought, of my family, made me hurt…almost like actual pain, except logically I knew it wasn't. But it hurt none the less. I think it will always hurt.

"Is there perhaps a reason I'm tied to a chair? Against my will. Without Seth Green or Rob Thomas standing over me? Preferably both now that I think about it."

__

'Just making sure you aren't housing any brain slugs.'

"Oh. Fair enough. I guess that means no Seth Green than?"

__

'Sorry.'

"It's cool." I blinked a few times and looked around. "So…where are we?"

__

'Shack in the woods. Around where the others live, as in far away from your teacher.'

I winced. Damnit. I wasn't happy about this at all. And I wasn't ashamed to show it. The next five or so minutes consisted of me insulting the six pathetic excuses for saviors, their families and friends, their intentions, and assorted woodland creatures.

I sighed and set back, breathing heavily. I was pretty tired and I wanted to get some sleep, and by that I meant actual sleep. Meaning I didn't pass out and wake up exhausted.

__

'What do you have against squirrels anyway? I mean sure, they're like little speed freaks, but they haven't done anything so bad as to curse the entire species.'

"I don't know; they just look like they're plotting something. Always hanging around…gathering nuts. They are most definitely planning something."

The bird laughed, an interesting sound in my head. I kind of liked it. …Which just seems wrong because hello, bird. But, as very few things about me are 'right' these days, so it hardly matters.

"Here's a weird question, since I've been a bitch and all, but can you untie me? Ropes chafe." I could feel hesitation and I rolled my eyes. "Come on you can turn into deadly animals, what the hell am I going to do? Call animal control? The horror."

__

'If I untie you will lay off with the sarcasm?'

I blinked then tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. It was pretty bad looking, almost rotted through and on the verge of falling down. The shack wasn't too big, littered with cans and candy wrappers. The bird was perched on the sill of some windows that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in many a year. I mean so dirty light didn't even shine through. It could have been midnight or noon for all I knew.

"Yeah fine, I'll be nice."

'Thanks for making that sacrifice for me.' He fluttered to the floor. For a moment there was nothing and then his body began to stretch and change and can I just say eww? This morphing stuff just isn't attractive. I think you could be Pamela Anderson and look like crap while changing like this.

But once he was more human then bird and the urge to puke wore off I had to admit my jailer was…kind of cute. Dirty blond hair, big brown eyes, not too tall…he was setting off my outcast alarm.

Yeah, outcast alarm. It's the latest in the 'Everyone hates me but it's cool cause I have cool imaginary gadgets' line.

He wasn't the big bad everyone's afraid to even look at him funny type. I am that type. Which is odd cause I'm like six two a hundred and sixty pounds soaking wet and nothing to be afraid of. Unless of course you think I'm the type to blow something up, which I'm not. No…really. I'm not.

Just that once…

He was more the quiet shy type who hung around in the front of the classroom and liked reading the books assigned to us in class and wrote angsty poetry and had a beautiful soul, but never got noticed by girls (or boys) because everyone wanted the bad boy. I could definitely see this guy having his head shoved in a few toilets. Correction, I could see myself smirking in a corner while this kid got dragged off to have his head shoved in a toilet. I know, I'm horrible.

Pft.

Anyway the bird, though I suppose that was no longer accurate, untied my hands and I got to inspect my delightful little rope burns. Not so bad, since I'd been unconscious, not like when I was tied up at Hayes', where I nearly rubbed my wrist to the point of bleeding. …Not on purpose.

Getting out of those ropes had been more annoying then hard to be honest. Lets just say that between me and Hayes, one of our mothers didn't teach us how to get out the knots our little sister and her demented friends tied us up with. When we played Cowboys and Indians I was somehow always tied to the tree in the backyard.

I'd like to think all of the strangeness started then…

Of course after getting loose it had just been a matter of cracking Hayes upside the head with a handy lamp, which had made the most satisfying crack I'd ever heard, and tying his stupid ass up. Even if he hadn't thought I would have learned how to tie, and untie, knots for a practical reason, you'd at least think the man knew me well enough to know I had a kink or two.

I probably could have gotten out of these ropes given some time but this was so much easier.

"You alright?"

"Yeah." I pushed myself up then sat back down quickly and bit my lower lip. He looked concerned and took a step towards me. I held up a hand to stop him, trying to command my stomach to stop the little dance it was doing. It didn't really work and I ended up doubled over, gagging. One can only assume that if I had eaten recently I would have thrown up.

"I'm going to assume you aren't alright now."

"Well, yeah. I've got the hangover from Hell or something." I muttered once I could speak again. My head was pounding, but the queasiness had subsided and I could think moderately clearly.

Stupid Hayes and his drugs. If I ever got a chance I was going to…rip out his spine through his chest or something equally if not more gruesome. I don't know, maybe play jacks with his still beating heart. I saw that on a cartoon once.

Probably the Simpson's.

But that's not really important. Blondie seemed to consider it then got even closer, so he was standing right in front of me. And he looked all worried and concerned, I kind of felt bad for what I was about to do.

I lunged forward and tackled him. This would have been a lot easier if he wasn't a wiggler. I mean, cute guy with the wiggling and the cursing. Eventually I was sitting on his chest and threatening to strangle him if he didn't stop it.

He stopped. I guess he thought I would do it. Then again, after trying to convince him and his friends to let me murder Hayes I wasn't too surprised he thought I would.

"You make my head hurt." I muttered before frowning. "That was wholly uncalled for."

"You attacked me!"

"You tied me up!" I stuck out my tongue at him and he glared at me.

"Well you could have had a Yeerk in your head."

"Well I don't so get off of that."

He grumbled something that probably wasn't very nice but continued to lie there. I half expected him to change into something else, but I do recall that he'd have to pass through his own body, which I'm pretty sure was that of the bird, and I'd like…crush him. I could see why he wouldn't want that.

"I should probably bang your head onto the floor until you pass out then leave, but that would be kind of mean and you seem to be a really nice guy."

"Then why are you sitting on me?"

I quirked an eyebrow. "You get your kicks your way and I'll get mine my way." He just blinked then rolled his eyes.

"I have a girlfriend. Sort of."

I shrugged some then resumed my train of thought. "And I know getting knocked out is no fun, so…do you want to go with me?"

"Go where?" He looked very suspicious like I was about to suggest we go turn ourselves over to the Yeerks for immediate infestation.

"Well, first of all I'm really rank so…maybe we could fix that. Secondly, I'm hungry so I was thinking Wendy's or Burger King or something." The little brat had the audacity to make a face at me. Like I wasn't offering free lunch. Honestly. "Well what do you suggest?"

"Make it Subway and I'll go with you."

"Fine. Picky bastard." I stood up and brushed my jeans off.

I had a revelation, as I followed the shadow of the bird through the forest towards civilization. My life was deeply and irreversibly fucked up. I'd always taken a certain amount of pride and being a little to the left of normalcy in my life; I had liked to think it made me open to things that other people refused to cope with but I was never so far away that I could associate with others or make friends if I choose or any of that stuff.

This was different. There was really no coming back from this. My family was dead, I was wanted for questioning if not murder and the only people I had on something resembling my side were a bunch of…well, freaks.

I was not going to be able to fix this.

So I stopped caring. Right then, in that moment, I just…stopped caring. What else could I do, really? If you think about things too much I think you start to lose it. People who go truly insane are probably the types who overanalyze everything.

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Mechante: Always glad to explain things m'dear. It's not that you can't trust Jono, because he's…honest. Always. He doesn't have the…oh, let's say mental capacity to be dishonest in his motives. His motives might be fucked up, but he will never just outright betray you. And yeah, Marco and Ax have this deeply amusing cannon relationship and that was indeed part of why I wanted to take this story. I could see it working, so I ran with it.

Plz: Hayes…well, Jono knocked him out. He just isn't the sort you can tie up and leave sitting around…yet people will continue to do it, as if it's effective. I try to keep original characters mildly realistic in the environment I put them in and try to keep them from being 'too' anything, so thanks for the good word.

Thanks to Moon and Michael.


	6. Tobias, Jono, Jake: Lack of Intellgenc

Thought you Learned the Second Time Around

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Chapter six

Lack of Intelligence

Tobias and Jono and Jake

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Tobias

It was a stupid thing to do really…well it was a stupid situation. Untying him, getting close to him, getting overpowered by this guy, then agreeing to go eat with him. It was the only thing I could think to do that wouldn't end with him bashing my skull in.

I like my skull in the state its in, thank you very much. I'd prefer if it wasn't made flat anytime soon. And I could really go for something that wasn't alive and wiggling anyway.

So I de-morphed and flew overhead, directing him towards…well civilization. I suppose I should have been more worried about whether he had a slug in his head, but the way he was acting about it made me think he wasn't. Besides by now the Yeerk in his head would be weak and dying, having been in his head at least a little more then two days.

I was pretty sure he was slug-free. And if he wasn't then…opps? It's not that I was exactly apathetic (though I'm that too from time to time) it's just that sometimes I don't feel like playing at saving the world.

We ended up on the side of a highway, which was littered with fast food places, gas stations, and signs for hotels and other advertisements. He raked a hand through his hair then walked over to the rest stop: more specifically a fleet of trucks and RVs. He paused next to an RV, looked around then knelt in front of the door. He reached into his jeans, pulled out something and focused on the door, working whatever it was into the lock. A moment later he opened it and ducked inside.

Fantastic. He was crazy and a delinquent. I circled the gas station a few times then flew down to the edge of the woods to take on my human form. I had to take a moment when I was done, feeling a little drained. Flying combined with morphing was taking a bit out of me.

Nothing some food couldn't solve though. I'm pretty easy that way. Coincidently that's not the way he would have liked me to be easy, but that's a completely different adventure into breaking various laws.

I walked out, drawing a few strange looks. It was probably the spandex. Marco's right about one thing; we looked like morons. I walked over to the RV and cautiously opened the door, hoping that he hadn't killed anyone inside and that whoever this did belong to was very busy elsewhere.

I went up two steps and ducked in time to avoid a broom handle to the head. I looked up at the kid, who blinked then smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Thought you were the owners or something."

"Right. Heaven forbid the people who own this should show up while you're robbing it."

He smirked then turned and headed down the aisle, past the small kitchen and living room area and through a door. At a loss for what else to do I followed him. The door led to a bedroom and he was in the middle, stripping off his shirt. He tossed it aside then popped the button on his pants, pausing to toss a wallet and assorted items onto the bed.

I blinked at him. He wasn't exactly buff or anything, but he wasn't a so skinny you could see his ribs, unlike certain other people who were currently standing in that room. The pain of not aging any I suppose. I'd like to think that if I actually got older I'd be less of an obvious bully target.

Hey, it's a thought.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure Blondie?" He asked, eyebrow going up as glanced over his shoulder at me. I opened my mouth to say something to dispute the 'pleasure' part of that statement when I found my eyes drawn to the tattoo on the small of his back. It was an orange and red flame with a four-armed man, holding a crossbow, a sword, a box, and a flame, standing inside. (1)

"See something you like?" His voice was the same suggestive one he'd taken with Jake but he was wearing a teasing smile this time. I coughed and looked away. Right. Staring. I was staring. Which I shouldn't have been. I was a great many things and voyeur wasn't one of them.

Yet anyway.

He laughed then something smacked me in the back of the head. I grabbed a blue t-shirt just before it fell to the floor then looked up at him. He stared back for a few seconds then arched an eyebrow, as if asking a question. It took a moment to grasp that I was staring. Hard.

Still.

Being human was still something I had problems with. Humans didn't stare like I had a tendency to do. No one noticed if a bird watched something, but they got uncomfortable if it was another person.

"Sorry."

"It's cool. I understand; my sexiness is distracting."

I snorted. "I wouldn't take it that far."

"Why not? I'd let you." He smirked at me before tossing a pair of jeans my way. I had the strange feeling that I was blushing. He turned away again, going back to fishing through a suitcase that was on the bed. He came up with a pair of black jeans and started to hop into them.

I looked at the clothes in my hand. In a generic sense I could understand why walking around in just my morphing outfit was a bad idea, what with not wanting to draw attention to the two of us. It was just a little odd. I was used to Rachel dressing me in times like this and, being the fashion happy girl that she was, I had gotten used to looking mildly preppy.

It'd been a while since I just wore jeans and a t-shirt. I pulled them on, glad to find they more or less fit and that the band name scrawled across the front wasn't terribly offensive. He stopped, glanced around, and then made a noise of approval. He picked up a wallet from the dresser, opened it and withdrew a few bills. He tossed it back down, grabbed his own things from the bed, and turned to face me.

"Ready to go?"

I shook my head. "You can't just take their money. You're already stealing their clothes."

"Well I'd use my own but someone forgot to exchange my money when we crossed the border." He shrugged then pushed past me and all but bounced back to the door. "Move it before we get caught. You're a terrible accomplice."

"I'm not an accomplice." I argued, trailing after him. "I'm an unwilling bystander in all of this."

"Uh hu." He went down the stairs and, once I was out, shut the door. "Drugstore next. My contacts are…on the verge of becoming fused to my eye. And they itch."

"Ah." I said, not really sure I was supposed to answer that. His smile seemed to be almost sarcastic before he made a beeline for the store across the highway, practically bouncing his way around the cars and people in his way. I followed, unable to keep a small smile from quirking my lips.

There was something really wrong with this kid and, though that should have been bothersome on a logical level, it was just amusing. More amusing than it should have been by far.

The trip into the store found him stealing a pair of glasses and shears. He also bought a box of hair dye and flirted with the girl behind the counter shamelessly, leaving her a blushing stuttering mess by the time he'd paid. A funny image on a girl with bleach blond hair, more holes in her face than I cared to count, and wearing tight, black, shiny clothing, in my humble opinion. I was coming to realize that just about everything he said was laced with innuendo and double meanings.

The old couple behind him was beginning to look scandalized and the man who may have been the girl's manager looked a few seconds away from losing it, if the almost purple color of his face was any indication. He was leaning against the counter, one finger trailing up and down the girl's bare arm and seemingly oblivious to the chaos he was the cusp of causing.

I caught his elbow and arched an eyebrow. The girl, who'd pretty much ignored me up to this point, blinked at me. "You owe me lunch, remember?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, lunch." He moved away from the girl, pushing a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "I forgot. I'll have to be going Paige, he gets jealous very easily. I think it's low self-esteem; like I'd ever want anyone else."

He heaved a dramatic sigh while a flash of regret moved over 'Paige's' face. I was too surprised to even glare and so allowed him to pull me out of the store, grinning maniacally as he did. He pulled me closer and wound an arm around my waist.

"Let me go." The glare I laid on him was probably ruined by me squeaking like a little girl. In my defense his hand really shouldn't have had that much contact with my ass. "I'll kill you."

"Tsh. Don't tease." He laughed softly but moved his hand obligingly. Not that the small of my back was any better but in the grand scheme of things. "It's all in fun…I haven't had any fun in a long time."

The wistful tone of his voice gave me a moment's pause. I looked up at him again and saw he was looking ahead with a far away expression on his face. Then he cleared his throat and smiled again.

"Besides, I didn't make you come along did I Blondie?"

"I don't trust you to not put horrible things in my food. And I have a name."

"And?"

"It's Tobias."

He blinked. "That's nice." He let me go and pulled open the door of the Subway, allowing me to enter in front of him.

"Do you have a name?"

"Are you hitting on me?" He smiled sweetly and I rolled my eyes. He pouted. "S'pose not then. It's Jonathan, but Jono works. Never Jon or Nathan or Nat or any of that shit."

The first sign something was wrong was when a girl, brown hair and a school uniform, started screaming her head off and pointing at Jonathan, who just blinked mildly then glanced around and pinched the bridge of his nose. Then some guy aimed a gun at him and he yelped before ducking under a table.

And as I hit the floor, so as not to have my body take on a few new holes, I couldn't help but think I really should have expected something like this.

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Jono

This is not my fault! I feel I should point this out; I wanted to go get a burger. The bird had to be picky and thus we were at Subway.

So I stroll in, calm as ever with Blondie at my side making totally pointless small talk. I was about to go into the long list of things not to call me if you liked having all of your various 'bits' intact.

Then the shit hit the proverbial fan when this chick in there started screaming and pointing to the TV in the corner, which, coincidently enough, was showing me and talking about how I'd apparently killed my family then fled.

Excuse me while I bang my head against the nearest counter. Stupid, what the hell was going through my head anyway? Hello, number one suspect in a multiple murder and I'm walking around in Subway. The bird really should have known better. What kind of superheroes were these people anyway? I've seen people on crack have more through plans.

Plans for like…getting more drugs, yes, but good solid plans nonetheless.

But I digress.

So anyway she's screaming and soon everyone is screaming and I'm kind of mystified. I should have run but for whatever reason I just stood there infinitely confused by all of this shit. Not exactly the moment that breeds belief in my apparent intelligence but there is something about a dozen people shrieking and pointing that will really through you off. Then some guy, I guess the manager since he was the oldest person in there, whipped out a gun.

More screaming as I duck like the scared little boy I am. I don't know, but at the moment I just wasn't feeling the whole gun-wielding thing. It was disturbing. I mean if I wanted more holes in my body I'd just get more done professionally.

Lord knows I already have a few. Giving a full list would take a minute or two, so we'll just skip that. I think I'm just a little off topic, my fault.

Anyway, there we were, on the floor, crawling to hide under a table.

"This isn't my fault you know."

He glared at me. "How is this not your fault?"

"You're the hero, it's your job to protect me." I frowned at him. "And thus far I have to say I would not recommend your services to anyone else."

I'm not sure if you realize this yet but I do bullshit a lot to cover up fear or pain or nervousness or happiness or…just about everything. Emotions…tend to make me really uncomfortable. It's easier to just cover them up with dirty jokes, curse words, and random observations that almost never actually help a situation.

Cassie would say I'm like Marco that way but I don't really see it that way. Marco has been known to give productive, if not pessimistic, suggestions from time to time. Everything I say is for the soul purpose of deflecting from the situation and throwing everyone off.

"I'm crushed." He hissed. "Since I'm so horrible at this why don't you come up with an idea to get out of here in one piece?"

I blinked then shrugged. Okay, if he really wanted my advice on how to get out of somewhere alive that was on him. I looked around quickly.

"We'll go out the window."

"We are not going out of a window." He looked at me like I'd lost it. Yeah well, you ask a stupid question. I shrugged. Fine, no window.

A hand grabbed me and hauled me out. I came face to gun with the manager guy…could it really be face to gun with a guy? He smiled a wholly unpleasant grin. I noticed everyone else seemed to have run out of the restaurant.

Once again I had a gun in my face and I'll admit I was afraid. Not so much of getting my head blown in, oddly enough. I was afraid I'd get my head blown in and I'd never get a chance to rip of Hayes' arm and beat him over the head with it.

My priorities were _so_ in order.

"The Visser will be pleased with me for disposing of you." I wrinkled my nose; this guy was so excited there was spit flying from his mouth. Or, rather, the alien in his head was so excited. I'm pretty sure I remember Visser from my crash course in aliens and world conquest.

There was a shattering noise, like someone had just dropped a box of glass on the floor. The guy holding onto my arm was so surprised his grip went slack. I wrenched my arm back, grabbed his shoulders and pulled him forward enough to slam my knee into his groin. He grunted then fell over, curling into a ball.

Good to know that having an alien in your head didn't make that hurt any less.

Tobias grabbed my arm and started all but dragging me towards the shattered window. I frowned at him but allowed it. How come when I said the window it was a bad idea, but when he actually went and shattered the damn thing it was a-ok? The hypocrisy of it all.

Still I hopped over the windowsill, hissing as I cut the palm of my hand on a jagged piece of glass still in the frame, and ran for all I was worth. We hopped out of the back and, other than a dumpster and a meat truck, had a clear shot back into the forest which we took advantage of.

Still, being the strange guy that I am, I couldn't help but wonder what a frozen meat truck was doing in the back of Subway. Last I checked they were mostly lunchmeat and pre-sliced chicken types of guys not the type to have huge slabs of meat delivered.

Still, I decided not to worry about it. It wasn't my business after all.

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Jake

Marco likes to get on me about how responsible I am all of the time. To be perfectly simple, someone around had to be responsible or we'd all die.

Case in point, I walk into my house after school hoping to do some homework and get a bowl of cereal before I left to watch the kid for a few hours. Instead I got a call from Marco, who tells me to turn on the news, before adding that I can't blame this one on him.

I knew it was something bad not to mention probably Marco's fault. Most things are.

I turned on the TV anyway, to the local news, just in time to catch the end of what the mildly attractive news chick was saying.

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"-Child. While he and his companion have disappeared yet again the police are searching for him. He's believed to be very dangerous. Suspected of killing his mother, stepfather, and younger sister; he is not to be taken lightly or pursued by civilians. If seen contact the number below. In other news, gaming genius Tsuzuki Yamcha is in town for a gaming conference and-"

They showed a picture of the kid before switching to the other story and I nearly screamed. But that might have attracted some seriously unwanted attention from Tom, or rather the thing in Tom's head, so I managed to keep it to a string of rather colorful words. Marco snorted humorlessly.

"My thoughts exactly. And you can't blame this on me, this one is obviously Tobias' fault."

"Whatever." I said, looking up at the ceiling as if it would provide me some form of a plan. Sadly the ceiling gods weren't feeling up to bestowing some knowledge at me and I was left to curse their stubbornness. Stupid, spiteful ceiling gods, can't help out the mere mortals in…

Sometimes I wonder when I lost my mind.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Okay. Why don't you call Cassie or Ax and see if they have their notes for History. I'll try Rachel."

"Alright. See you to study in a few hours?" Marco asked.

"Of course."

I hung up and then dialed Rachel's number. Jordan answered. I cut off her greeting and demanded to know where Rachel was. She huffed, apparently offended that I didn't want to speak to her, before answering my question.

I made a mental promise to take her out for ice cream another day. Maybe win back some 'favorite cousin' points with her.

"Rachel isn't here. She said she was going to Cassie's if anyone needed her."

Why did this not surprise me in the least? Of course Rachel wouldn't wait for any kind of signal or plan, she just ran off. I could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on even as I hung up with my younger cousin.

I made a quick stop in the bathroom to grab a few aspirin then scribbled a note for my parents, though I had my doubts about whether or not they'd notice I was gone. They were pretty much used to me coming and going at all hours.

I was on my way out when Tom came in. His eye was twitching and I briefly considered seeing what was up with the Yeerk in his head, but I figured the situation at hand was a little more serious, so I left.

Because I'm the responsible one. And because of that I was going to kill Tobias.

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(1) Jono's a fire starter/pyrokinetic in another life. In this one he's just a pyromaniac. The figure on his back is Helios, God of Fire in Jono's actual…world…universe…thing.

Mechante: Jono has laid of the sarcasm as much as someone like him can. Instead he's going for being a grabby little pervert. Rachel is the sort of girlfriend Tobias is referring to and I agree, they would have made much better friends than anything else. You're moving a bit fast, bit it's okay…we all know where it's going eventually. Truth, Justice, and the Canadian way, actually, but yeah…no. That's so not Jonathan. He'd much rather sit in the background and be snarky while the other's try to save the world.

Plz: Not much of a personality beyond 'bitch mode' but yeah, he has one. Or…had one. He's going to do his damnedest to destroy that part of himself. Maybe Tobias will be able to stop him but…well, Jonathan has been known to have an overwhelming personality.

Dragon: That's good. I try to temper angst with sarcastic humor as best I can. Obviously what's going on is serious, what with the aliens and the dead families and whatnot but I don't want to bog anyone down in it. At the moment anyway.

Mabby: Eh, it's not the number of reviews; it's the content of said reviews. I'd always rather have two thoughtful than sixty two worders. Jono is fun and will keep up his own brand of humor when fifteen seconds from dying because…well, that's all he knows how to do.


	7. Tobias and Jono: Issues

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Chapter Seven

Issues

Jono and Tobias

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_Jono_

We made our way through the forest without any signs of perusal and eventually ended up back at the shack, which I supposed was going to be home for a while. I flopped down onto the floor and tossed my bag a few feet away, resolutely looking away as Blondie changed back. I'd like to think I don't have a weak stomach or anything like that, but it was really one of the most disgusting things in the world, and some other worlds I'm sure, to watch.

For a moment there was nothing but silence between us, as if it had a psychical presence. It unnerved me and I racked my brain for something to break it. I almost smiled then, realizing what I needed to do so urgently. I'd once loved silence, a chance to think without other people intruding, but now…now I wanted something to fill the gaps, desperately. It scrapped away at me, pushing against the edges of my brain and I hated it with so much passion it was almost amusing.

Then again, my sense of humor is a little abnormal, I suppose.

"I'm still hungry."

'_I don't think I care'_ Tobias said, a note of long-suffering sarcasm in his voice.

"Aww, c'mon, it's not my fault I'm wanted for murder. Where's you compassion?" I tried my best 'pity me' look but for some off reason I doubt it had the effect I was going for. It was probably the harsh bark of laughter than rang in my head. I sighed and leaned back on my elbows.

"You can't let me starve. It's…not nice." He seemed to ignore me, preening his feathers instead of replying. Not that he couldn't do both at the same time, what with not needing his mouth for the telepathy thing he had going on so…yeah, he was ignoring me. I sighed and let my gaze fall to the dirt floor and began to draw stick figures.

I amused myself for a good five minutes with a rather elaborate beheading scene, or at least as elaborate as stick figures could be, followed by a truly brilliant series of drawings depicting someone being drawn and quartered.

I smiled crookedly, an image of Hayes being stretched in four directions until he was ripping apart dancing through my mind. I scrapped my nail over the dirt, making a trail of intestine falling from the torn figure, and considered the blood splatter such an incident would have. It'd probably be big and quick, spraying everything all at once and-

'_You have no idea how disturbing you look when you smile like that do you? I don't even want to know what you're drawing, for the record.'_

I frowned, fantasy fading somewhat. What a killjoy. I glanced up at him and found those golden-brown eyes staring at me emotionlessly. Then again, he was a bird. Did birds have emotions…no, that wasn't the right question. The (carefully suppressed) hippie in me insisted that animals felt things, along with some shouting about me being a murderer. My mother and Marisa would have been pleased to know that their crazy Vegan ways would haunt me forever.

Ah, and there was that hurt again. Fuck.

Anyway. The correct question for Tobias would be 'can birds show their emotions'? I, obviously, had not a fucking clue but it'd be something interesting to find out about.

I let my eyes drift up to the roof of the shack, which was more hole than wood at this point. I could see the sky, pale cloudless blue turning a stormy gray with each passing moment and knew without question that it was about to rain.

Of course.

"What do you eat normally? When guys aren't offering free food for the pleasure of your company I mean."

There was a moment of silence punctuated by that intense gaze. I think anyone with two working brain cells would have started to squirm, because it's even more unnerving to have an animal, be it an animal with a person's mind, stare at you than it is to have a person stare. I just stared back, wondering if he was even going to answer me. It didn't seem like he was.

'_Whatever's running around when I'm flying past usually. Squirrels, rats, mice, snakes…whatever. Can't really afford to be picky.' _There was something about his tone that seemed to imply I should have been disturbed by that.

"Huh." I looked back down at my sketch, frowning. "I ate snake once."

There was a moment of silence, as if he was silently debating the wisdom of his next words and whether or not he wanted to know. I know he did, they always did. It was part of the human condition, no matter how gross something was you always wanted to know.

'_Why?'_

"My grandparents were total Native Americans turned hippies, which may have something to do with my mother being named Sunshine, and were big on never killing more than was needed so they never shopped like normal people. Raised animals on the farm and stuff." I missed my grandparents. When my mother married my jackass stepfather we'd moved from the farm to the city and I hadn't seen them since. "In the spring usually, while the animals were breeding, we'd go for other stuff. My grandmother made a mean chipmunk stew. Anyway. I ate snake. Once. I was like five."

It's funny. Sometimes you can literally hear the wheels turning in someone's mind. This was one of those times. I can only imagine he was having a fun time processing the utterly random and barely connected bits on information I'd given him. I couldn't wait to see what he took from it.

'_You have other family?'_

"Dead." I shrugged slightly.

If we wanted to get technical I had a hoard of family somewhere in South Dakota that I was not at all inclined to go seeking out and my father and his family but…again, not at all inclined to go seeking out. They weren't really family so much as people who shared some alleles with me and there was more to family than that.

My family was dead. The ones that mattered anyway; dead and never coming back. My grandparents had died when I was sixteen and now there was no one left that mattered to me.

I reached up, raking a hand through my hair then rubbed the toe of my shoe over my drawing, destroying it.

Thunder boomed somewhere off in the distance and I chuckled ruefully. It was going to rain and I was sitting in a shack that had almost no roof. I was god only knew how far from home, wanted for murder, being chased by aliens, betrayed by the only halfway decent teacher I ever had, with no family or friends. I was hungry, had a headache, had only a bird for company and now, just to make things perfect, I was going to get rained on.

It kind of made me wonder whom exactly I had pissed off so badly in my last life. It was just…so much. Too much. Why did it have to be me? I wanted to scream or sob or just…crush something so badly that it made my chest hurt and fingers itch.

I shoved it down though, shoved it down and clenched my hand into a fist until the nails dug into my skin and little half-moons of blood welled up. I commanded it to go away, demanded that there be nothing. Nothing, forever nothing.

'_Are you okay?'_

"I'm fine." My voice cracked and I closed my eyes. "Fine."

'_Mmm.'_ I don't think he believed me, but he didn't press it. '_I'm going to see about getting you something that doesn't need to be killed to eat, okay? On the off chance you try to run away Ax is nearby and he'll do more than knock you out this time.'_

I nodded and bowed my head at the sound of rustling wings. He was gone and I was alone.

There was silence.

I wanted to curl up and die. I reached for the bag, grabbing the edge of it and dragging it towards me, and then withdrew a heavy pair of shears. I eyed them, watching the gray clouds overhead in the cool metal.

XXXXXXXX

_Tobias _

You know how sometimes you just walk into a room of people and know, instantly, that you're not only the center of attention but that you don't want to be the center of attention?

Yeah, that's exactly what happened when I flew into Cassie's barn. I'd seen Rachel's bike outside and had spotted Marco through the skylight from the air. They were all there save Ax, of that I had no doubt. I could feel the tension as I landed and knew that they knew about our little failed field trip.

I supposed I could tell them Jonathan threatened me with severe and potentially lingering bodily harm but I doubt they'd really care that much. Rachel and Jake are both too serious for such things, Cassie was likely to be too busy being my mother to actually hear me, and Marco…well, the whole thing would probably amuse Marco, which was probably the best I could hope for considering the situation.

Most people would never suspect it but I was actually really fond of Marco. Other than Rachel and Ax he was probably the one I related to best. I can understand standing in the middle of something utterly screwed up and ridiculous, realizing it was your life, and wanting to laugh. In fact I have that impulse a lot.

I think it's one of the first phases of stress-induced madness.

'_Hi. Watch any good TV lately?'_ I asked, keeping my tone emotionless. It wasn't hard to do; it was much harder in fact to inflect emotion into my tone, thoughtspeak and otherwise, than it was to keep up a deadpan.

I was too tired to try it now. Morphing, demorphing, flying and then more of the same. I needed some sleep once this was all done and over with.

Marco choked, loudly, and nothing was said for a long moment as he made an attempt to not die right there in the barn. As I suspected no one else looked at all amused. Oh well, I'd tried.

"Are you okay?" Cassie of course.

She was standing next to Jake, one hand on his arm and eyes brimming with concern. If I could have smiled at her I would have, if for no other reason than to put her at ease. I hate having people worried about, Cassie most of all because I know she worries the most and about the things no one can do anything about. The others worry about things like if I'm eating and if I'm cold or lonely or alive or…whatever. You know, the little things.

Cassie worries about my sanity, my soul…my humanity. The sort of things I can't even bring myself to care so much about anymore. Things too deep for a bird to be concerned about.

'_Fine. Jonathan is kind of starving to death though.'_

"Who?" Rachel had her arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted to the side, beautiful blue eyes narrowed dangerously.

I could have sighed but instead just responded. '_The guy we kidnapped and tied up out in the woods for three days with no food.' _

Cassie was, of course, the first to react. Her hand fell away from Jake and she chewed on her bottom lip. If I know her half as well as I suspect I do she was beating herself up for forgetting something as important as feeding someone. I could see the angry resolve in Jake's eyes waver somewhat, obviously having realized what brought out little trek into civilization on.

"You should have gotten one of us." He said finally. "At least to watch your back, just in case."

'_I'll remember that next time.' _I can't say for sure but I thought I saw Jake shudder at the mention of 'next time' before rubbing at the bridge of his nose. '_I didn't really expect for the manager of Subway to be a Controller.' _

"They've even taken over Subway?" Marco asked, looking outraged"Where will the carnage end? First they try to ruin hamburgers and now this; is no fast food establishment safe? I ask you-"

"Shut up Marco. It sounds like a set-up to me." Rachel said, finally letting her arms drop to her side. "You two just happen to wander into a place run by a slug."

"You're positive he's not a Controller?" Jake looked up at me and I couldn't help but be a little unnerved by it. Not because it was harsh or angry, but because of what was behind it. Trust: Jake trusted me to not have fucked this up by falling into a trap and letting someone who knew everything about us get away without even realizing it.

'_I've never met a Controller quite as annoying as he is, so I'm going for no.' _Which may or may not have been saying a lot, since I've encountered some fairly annoying and borderline insane Controllers. And some not so borderline ones as well.

Jake smiled for a fleeting moment then sat down onto a bale of hay with a sigh. "That just leaves what to do with him. I talked to Erik and the Chee are willing to put him into hiding and try to make the story fade away from the news as best they can."

This sounded as good an idea as any to me, it got Jonathan out of the fight he obviously wanted no part of, had him being defended by a race of more than capable androids (even if they were nonviolent), and meant he was no longer our responsibility. Everyone won…in a relative sort of way, since Jonathan's family was still dead and he was still wanted by the American government and everything.

Cassie frowned and looked over at Jake, fingers tugging on the end of her t-shirt almost nervously. "But?"

"But? Why are there buts?" Marco asked, looking between the two of them.

"I hate to agree with him," Rachel inclined her head towards Marco slightly. "But what's the problem? Sounds like a good plan to me. Tobias?"

'_Yeah.' _It occurred to me, as I sat perched there in the rafters, that I've easily done more speaking since being stuck in morph than I did when I was just human. I think there's some kind of irony in that.

"Jake?" Cassie's tone was soft, the same one I saw her use when talking to wounded animals. Jake was silent a moment longer, suddenly very interested in a bit of loose hay on the floor. Cassie touched his shoulder and I saw Jake almost shudder under the touch. I doubt Cassie even felt it but I saw it easily.

"This is our screw up. We put him in this position and it's…really fucked up to just pawn him off on the Chee, or anyone, and try to shuffle our responsibility off onto them. It's…we should be looking out for him."

Rachel shook her head, hair gleaming as it fell back into place. "No way Jake. We can't spend our time watching some helpless kid."

"I know that."

"Then what?" Rachel demanded, the small wrinkle in her forehead an obvious indication that she was getting frustrated. Her temper just got shorter and shorter as time went on, unfortunately for those around her.

To Marco's credit no matter how much we tease him he's one of the more intelligent people I know. His eyes widened just slightly then he laughed almost ruefully.

"You can't be saying what I think you're saying. Not after what happened with the Rat." Cassie's hand tightened on Jake's shoulder as he looked at the ground again. The silence spoke for him. "No. Just…no. It should be an obvious no; we didn't know He was psychotic but this one is obviously a few cards short of a deck."

"Are you insane?" Rachel was almost shouting, but seemed to be just barely restraining herself. "He nearly killed all of us."

"I was there." Jake muttered.

"Then how can you even think that? No new Animorphs, we can't trust anyone else!" Rachel raked a hand through her hair then licked her lower lip. "Jake…you feel bad, I get it. We all do, but that doesn't mean we put ourselves at risk my giving every poor kid we meet the ability to hurt us. It's bad enough he knows."

Jake looked at her for a moment then up at me. "Tobias?"

It took me a moment to realize he was asking me my opinion, calling a vote. Jake's only way of shifting power off of his shoulders for a few moments. Everyone else turned their gaze to me, waiting for what I would say.

I could see Jake's position easily; I kind of felt the same. Even more than that I couldn't help but think that just sending Jonathan away without asking his say in the matter was wrong. But, of course, we aren't fighting a moral war so it doesn't matter.

I also saw, and felt, Rachel and Marco. David was a mistake, a big one that can never actually be fixed. As long as we live we have to deal with the fact we made an Animorph who turned out to be insane and put us in more danger than Visser Three ever did. He'd come some close to killing all of us all on his own and doing what Visser Three still hadn't managed even with an army at his disposal.

It wasn't the sort of thing you could just move past.

Still… Jonathan wasn't David. He wasn't angry and desperate; he was…alone. It was already determined with him; there would be no saving his family and living a normal life somewhere. It was what it was and now it was just a matter of whether or not we put him into hiding or let him fight.

"Tobias?" Rachel was looking at me, blue eyes showing confusion. She didn't understand why I was hesitating, what I had to think about.

He wasn't David. Not that I knew anything about him, it was just…a gut feeling. Instinct. You learned to trust instinct to survive after a while. '_I…yes. I'm with Jake.' _

The look Rachel gave me was as if I'd just stabbed her in the back or handed her over to Visser Three or worse. I couldn't look at her and instead turned by gaze to Cassie who was once again biting her lower lip. Finally, after a long moment, she shook her head.

"No. I couldn't…not again."

"Well Ax is going to do whatever Jake says so we have a tie." Marco announced, looking grim. I almost corrected him, it wasn't like Ax didn't have a mind of his own, but decided against it. "How do we break ties?"

"Fights to the death?" Jake suggested with forced cheerfulness. Marco tilted his head, almost as if he was considering it.

'_We could, you know, ask Jonathan what he wants.' _

Once again I found myself the center of attention. I had to stop doing that.

000000000

Dragon: Uh…I'd like to update regularly, honest, but I can only go when it wants to be written. The story has a mind of its own and I am but it's interpreter. I didn't make it sound sarcastic, it just…is. The story I mean.

Mars: The Martian Armada? I suppose that's as good a reason as any to update.

Mechante: The hawk doesn't have that long a lifespan, it's one of his (many) issues in the book and the not aging thing…it kind of just popped up when I was writing and then I went 'yeah…that makes sense.' I wouldn't want to be 14 (the age I chose) forever either…it wasn't so hot the first time around, you know? And he is tired. More than any other word I could use to describe the 'voice' I'm going for with him 'Tired' sums it up.


End file.
